One of those moments when your brain seems to freeze

My shed has a small intruder alarm (internally) on the door. Keypad operated and makes one heck of an ear piercing din when it goes off. Seriously loud.

The other day I was leaving the shed and, in a senior moment, for the first time completely messed up the arming sequence. I could tell it wasn’t going to arm properly so I tried to disarm it and start again. Well, that was a big mistake. I messed it up. The alarm then decided to do its own thing with my right ear about a foot away.

Jeez it hurt. I’m pressing buttons like crazy and the damn thing would not stop. Eventually I pressed the palm of my hand over the little speaker to get some aural respite while I collected what was left of my thoughts. I was trapped like this for some five minutes trying to figure out my next move. I didn’t want to rip the alarm off the wall and destroy it (it’s been a good little device), so I decided to rip the wiring out of the door reed switch, unclip the alarm body from the wall and then get to a screwdriver to remove the batteries and silence it. Man, I’ve never faffed about so much in my life, but eventually I got to the kitchen and the small tool kit under the sink and got the thing silenced.

Three days later and my right ear still feels weird, though the imprint of the speaker has thankfully disappeared from my palm!

New reed magnet ordered, soldering iron at the ready, and it’ll be fixed. Recommisioning will be done wearing my gardening equipment ear defenders!